IN 

George  Davidson 


Professor  of  Geography 
University  of  California 


American  ^c?ijpse  Expedition  to  Japan,  1887. 


Preliminary  Report  (Unofficial) 


ON 


The  Total  Solar  Eclipse  of  1887, 


BY 


DAVID  P.JTODXL.PH. D., 

Director  Amherst  College  Observatory,  and  Astronomer  in  Charge 
of  the  Expedition. 


AMHERST,    MASS. 
PUBLISHED  BY  THE  OBSERVATORY. 

1888. 


American  Eclipse  Expedition  to  Japan,  1887. 


Preliminary  Report  (Unofficial) 


ON 


The  Total  Solar  Eclipse  of  1887, 


BY 


DAVID  P.  TODD,  PH.D., 

Director  Amherst  College  Observatory,  and  Astronomer  in  Charge 
of  the  Expedition. 


AMHERST,    MASS. 
PUBLISHED  BY  THE  OBSERVATORY. 

1888. 


NOTE. 


Early  in  the  year  1887,  the  Trustees  of  the  BACHE  Fund  of 
the  National  Academy  of  Sciences,  Washington,  made  a  grant 
to  Professor  SIMON  NEWCOMB,  U.  S.  Navy,  Superintendent  of 
the  Nautical  Almanac,  for  observing  the  total  solar  eclipse  of 
the  19th  August  of  that  year.  Professor  NEWCOMB  hn  vino- 
determined  the  general  lines  of  research  to  be  undertaken, 
and  decided  upon  locating  the  observing-statiou  in  Japan,  ap- 
pointed me  to  the  charge  of  the  Expedition.  Already  suffi- 
ciently aware  that  the  chances  of  a  cloudless  August  afternoon 
in  that  island  country  were  by  no  means  what  an  eclipse  ob- 
server would  like,  I  was  the  more  anxious  to  undertake  collat- 
eral work  of  such  nature  that,  should  the  eclipse  prove  a  fail- 
ure, the  labors  of  the  Expedition  might  still  accrue  to  the 
benefit  of  science.  To  this  end,  I  invited  Dr  W.  J.  HOLLAND 
of  Pittsburgh,  to  join  the  Expedition  as  naturalist  :  his  prelimi- 
nary report  follows  my  own.  Also,  the  season  of  the  sojourn 
of  the  Expedition  in  Japan  being  the  favorable  period  for 
ascending  Fuji-san,  the  famous  sacred  mountain  of  that  coun- 
try, an  arrangement  was  concluded  with  Professor  EDWARD 
C.  PICKERING,  Director  of  the  Harvard  College  Observatory, 
whereby  I  was  enabled  to  conduct  an  astronomical  reconnois- 
ance  from  the  summit  of  the  mountain,  12,400  feet  high,  and 
obtain  data  bearing  upon  its  suitability  as  a  site  for  astronom- 
ical observation.  Only  passing  mention  of  this  separate  Expe- 
dition is  made  in  the  present  paper,  as  the  final  report  to 
Professor  PICKERING  will  shortly  be  concluded. 

D.  P.  T. 


< 


Preliminary  Report  of  Prof.  David  P.  Todd, 

ASTRONOMER  IN  CHARGE  OF  THE  EXPEDITION. 


The  collection  and  preparation  of  the  instrumental  equipment  prior 
to  the  departure  of  the  Eclipse  Expedition  from  the  United  States 
occupied  about  three  weeks — at  Washington  and  Cambridge.  The 
willing  co-operation  of  a  number  of  the  offices  of  the  Government  is 
gratefully  acknowledged,  thereby  enabling  the  Expedition  to  carry 
out  extensive  plans  for  eclipse-research  which,  without  such  aid, 
would  not  have  been  possible,  through  lack  of  the  necessary  instru- 
ments. Especially  to  be  mentioned  are  the  U.  S.  Naval  Observato- 
ry, Capt.  R.  L.  PHYTHIAN,  Superintendent ;  the  U.  S.  Geological 
Survey,  Major  J.  W.  POWELL,  Director ;  and  the  U.  S.  Coast  and 
Geodetic  Survey,  Mr  F.  M.  THORN,  Superintendent.  Much  needed 
information  was  abundantly  supplied  by  His  Excellency  RIUICHI 
KUKI,  the  Japanese  Minister  Plenipotentiary  at  Washington. 

I  left  Boston  the  9th  June  for  Japan,  going  by  way  of  Montreal 
and  the  Canadian  Pacific  Railway  to  Vancouver,  the  coast  terminus, 
and  thence  embarking  for  Yokohama  in  the  steamship  '  Abyssinia,' 
the  first  west-bound  ship  of  the  now  regularly  established  trans-Pa- 
cific line  owned  by  the  Canadian  Company.  I  desire  specially  to 
thank  Mr  Lucius  TUTTLE,  Passenger  Traffic  Manager  of  the  Cana- 
dian Pacific  Railway,  who  afforded  the  Expedition  such  facilities  of 
transit  as  could  only  be  furnished  by  the  longest  existing  transporta- 
tion line  under  a  single  management. 

Yokohama  was  reached  the  8th  July,  and  steps  were  at  once  taken 
toward  locating  the  instruments  in  the  most  advantageous  spot.  In 
this  connection.  I  have  much  pleasure  in  recalling  the  highly  valued 
services  rendered  to  the  Expedition  by  His  Excellency  R.  B. 
HUBBARD,  Minister  Plenipotentiary  of  the  United  States  to  Japan,  and 
b\7  Dr  W.  N.  WHITNEY,  interpreter  of  the  U.  S.  Legation  at  Tokio. 
Every  facility  desired  by  the  Expedition  was  promptly  afforded 


M287966 


through  the  intervention  of  Count  INOUYE,  the  Minister  of  State 
for  Foreign  Affairs,  ami  his  courteous  secretary,  Mr  T.  SAMESHIMA. 

Meteorological  indications  were1  only  of  the  most  general  character, 
and  far  from  precise.  The  stations  of  the  Japanese  Meteorological 
Service  being  all  on  the  coasts,  there  was  little  to  enable  one  to  form 
even  a  fair  guess  as  to  what  the  chances  in  the  interior  might  be.  I 
have  to  thank  the  officers  of  this  service  for  much  assistance,  espec- 
ially Dr  E.  KNIPPING,  the  meteorologist  of  the  Imperial  Central 
Observatory  at  Tokio.  On  general  grounds,  he  with  others  thought 
that  the  chances  of  a  clear  August  afternoon  were  rather  better  on 
the  west  coast,  near  Niigata,  say,  than  elsewhere.  And  thither  I 
should  doubtless  have  gone  without  farther  enquiry,  but  that  the 
means  of  sea-transportation  were  uncertain,  while  the  journey  by 
pack-horse  over  the  mountains  of  western  central  Japan  seemed, 
with  the  weighty  boxes,  in  every  way  inexpedient. 

As  I  had  abundant  time,  I  determined  upon  a  hurried  reconnois- 
sance  of  eastern  central  Japan,  along  the  line  of  the  Japanese  Rail- 
way Company,  then  extending  northward  from  Tokio  through  Utsuno- 
miya  (65  miles)  to  Shirakawa  (113  miles),  and  now  open  as  far  as 
Fukushima  and  Sendai.  The  President  of  the  Company,  the  Hon. 
L.  NARABARA,  I  have  great  pleasure  in  thanking  for  his  courteous 
offices  on  this  and  subsequent  occasions.  And  no  less,  Viscount  M. 
ENOUYE,  the  Chief  Commissioner  of  the  Imperial  Railway  Bureau. 
The  region  between  Utsunomiya  and  Shirakawa  was,  in  my  judg- 
ment, very  unsuited  for  an  eclipse  station,  on  account  of  its  broken 
and  hilly  character,  and  the  proximity  of  the  mountain  ranges  lying 
west.  I  found  Utsunomiya  itself  situate  in  a  broad  plain,  and  ap- 
parently very  favorable  meteorologically,  but  too  far  from  the  line 
of  central  eclipse  ;  while  Shirakawa  was  as  nearly  as  desirable  in  the 
central  line  (some  ten  or  twelve  miles  north  of  it),  and  twenty-five 
or  thirty  miles  from  the  mountains  to  the  west — far  enough,  it  seem- 
ed, to  be  without  the  range  of  their  perturbing  effect  upon  the  clear- 
ness of  the  sky. 

At  any  rate,  a  careful  balancing  of  the  pros  and  cons  for  all  likely 
stations  led  to  my  decision  that  Shirakawa  was  the  best  place  for  the 
location  of  at  least  the  greater  part  of  the  instrumental  equipment. 
Professor  PICKERING,  who  provided  the  Expedition  with  most  of  its 
apparatus  for  specialized  research  upon  the  corona,  desired  me,  if 
practicable,  to  place  all  or  a  portion  of  it  on  the  summit  of  one  of  the 
mountain-peaks,  of  which  there  are  several  adjacent  to  the  centre  of 


the  shadow-path,  notably  Nantai-san,  8,500  feet  high.  Dr  HOLLAND 
made  the  ascent  of  this  mountain  ;  but  his  report  of  its  difficulties, 
together  with  the  highly  probable  cloudy  condition  of  the  summit  at 
the  time  of  the  eclipse,  led  me  to  abandon  the  mountain  project.  The 
other  peaks  were  too  far  away  from  the  central  station  to  permit  of 
occupation,  with  the  time  and  assistance  at  my  disposal.  The  entire 
apparatus,  therefore,  was  brought  to  Shirakawa,  and  the  work  of 
preparation  actively  begun  four  weeks  before  the  day  of  the  eclipse. 
For  determining  the  longitude  of  the  station,  all  necessary  telegraph- 
ic facilities  were  courteously  afforded  by  Admiral  T.  ENOMOTO,  the 
Minister  of  the  Department  of  Communications,  and  Mr  IGARASHI, 
electrical  engineer  ;  while  the  requisite  exchange  of  signals  was  effect- 
ed with  the  Naval  Observatory  at  Tokio,  through  co-operation  with 
Rear- Admiral  N.  YANAGI,  Hydrographer  of  the  Navy. 

I  was  most  fortunate  in  having  from  Lieut. -General  Count  OYAMA, 
the  Minister  of  State  for  the  Army,  permission  to  establish  my  station 
on  the  ruin  of  the  celebrated  old  castle  occupied  by  the  ABE  family 
until  the  revolution  of  1868.  Count  OYAMA  also  ordered  the  execu- 
tion of  a  topographic  map  of  the  environs  of  the  castle,  and  the  sur- 
vey was  duly  conducted  by  Lieut.  YAJIMA.  Throughout  our  sojourn 
at  the  castle,  the  greatest  assistance  was  generously  rendered  us  by 
the  Hon.  H.  ORITA,  the  Governor  of  Fukushima-^en.  Our  main  in- 
strument was  a  horizontal  photoheliograph  of  nearly  forty  feet  focal 
length — the  identical  apparatus  used  by  Professor  NEWCOMB  in  1882 
at  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope,  in  photographing  the  transit  of  Venus. 
Two  weeks'  time  was  quite  sufficient  for  the  substantial  completion  of 
this  instrument,  in  so  far  as  the  parts  required  for  photographing  the 
partial  phases  of  the  eclipse  were  concerned.  Of  these  we  had  plan- 
ned to  secure  100  pictures  ;  but  I  had  determined  also  to  attempt  coro- 
nal photography  with  the  same  apparatus,  hoping  to  obtain  eight  or 
ten  negatives  of  the  corona  of  such  size  that  subsequent  enlargement 
would  be  undesirable.  At  the  focus  of  this  telescope  the  sun's  im- 
age has  a  diameter  of  four  and  a  half  inches,  and  dry  plates  17  x  20 
inches  had  been  provided  for  this  work ;  and  an  extra  mirror,  finely 
silvered  by  BRASHEAR,  was  taken  along  for  the  heliostat,  to  replace 
the  unsilvered  reflector  ordinarily  employed,  shortly  before  totality. 
Special  modifications  of  the  exposing-shutters  and  the  plate-holders 
had  to  be  made,  and  a  light-proof  tube  or  camera  the  whole  length  of 
the  telescope  had  to  be  constructed,  before  the  complete  drill  for  the 
eclipse  could  begin,  and  this  required  a  week  or  ten  days  more.  As 


was  anticipated,  too,  we  found  on  photographing  artificial  crescents — 
very  slender  ones — that  no  image  of  the  plumb-line  appeared  on  the 
plate  :  there  was  thus  no  initial  line  of  reference  for  the  measure- 
ment of  position-angles.  Mr  HITCHCOCK,  whom  I  had  appointed 
photographer  of  the  Expedition,  undertook  a  variety  of  experiments 
to  overcome  this  difficulty,  and  with  entire  success.  The  form  of 
apparatus  eventually  adopted  will  be  detailed  in  the  final  report  of  the 
Expedition. 

To  assist  in  the  operations  of  the  photographic  house,  we  were 
fortunate  in  securing  the  services  of  Mr  K.  OGAWA  of  Tokio,  a  Jap- 
anese photographer  of  wide  experience,  and  Dr  Y.  MAY  KING  of 
Amoy,  also  a  highly  skilled  manipulator.  For  some  minutes  imme- 
diately before  the  beginning  and  after  the  end  of  totality,  the  partial 
phase  exposures  were  to  be  made  every  15  seconds  ;  while  the  large 
plates  for  the  corona,  with  exposures  varying  from  1  second  to  15 
seconds  were  to  be  handled  as  rapidly  as  possible.  We  found  lhat 
there  was  a  loss  of  about  5  seconds  between  the  plates — or  some- 
thing like  one-sixth  the  entire  duration  of  totality.  With  so  efficient 
a  photographic  corps,  and  the  drill  which  we  all  underwent,  I  had 
the  best  of  reason  for  anticipating  complete  success.  As  wet  plates 
seemed  in  many  ways  preferable  to  dry  ones  for  the  partial  phases, 
the  photographers  undertook  a  thorough  series  of  experiments  in 
preserving  sensitized  films,  at  first  with  glycerine,  and  subsequently 
more  successfully  with  sugar.  The  results  of  this  work  make  the 
wet  plate,  with  its  fine-grained  film,  as  available  for  rapid  manipula- 
tions in  the  photography  of  celestial  phenomena,  as  the  dry  plate  has 
hitherto  been  found  to  be.  It  was  shown  that  the  plates  might  with 
entire  safety  be  removed  from  the  sensitizing  bath  from  two  to  four 
hours  before  exposure  and  development,  if  treated  with  the  sugar 
preservative,  and  proper  precaution  was  taken  to  keep  the  films  from 
drying.  The  details  of  this  process  will  be  embodied  in  the  defini- 
tive report  of  the  Expedition.  As  an  extreme  test,  we  exposed,  on 
the  day  after  the  eclipse,-  a  box  of  plates  which  had  been  sensitized 
and  preserved  some  twenty-six  hours  previously,  and  found  that  they 
gave  sun-pictures  photographically  perfect. 

Shortly  before  the  Expedition  left  America,  the  Hon.  W.  C. 
WHITNEY.  Secretary  of  the  Navy,  detailed  two  officers  from  the  As- 
iatic Squadron,  U.  S.  S.  '  Monocacy,'  to  join  me  on  my  arrival  in 
Yokohama.  Lieut. W.  H.  H.  SOUTHKKLAND  and  P.  A.  Engineer  J.  PEM- 
BERTON  accordingly  reported  for  eclipse-duty,  and  their  services  were 


zealously  and  most  effectively  rendered.  In  addition  to  his  work  as 
executive  officer,  I  placed  Lieut.  SOUTHERLAND  in  charge  of  the  9-foot 
coronagraph  sent  out  by  the  PICKERINGS.  The  objective  of  this  in- 
strument was  the  ?i-inch  CLARK  glass  of  the  equatoreal  of  Amherst 
College  Observatory  ;  while  the  dry  plates,  with  the  instructions  for 
their  manipulation,  were  identical  with  those  furnished  by  the  PICK- 
ERINGS to  Professor  YOUNG,  who  carried  to  his  Russian  station  the 
6|-iuch  MKBZ  glass,  of  the  large  transit  instrument  at  Amherst. 
Through  clouds  at  both  Professor  YOUNG'S  station  and  my  own,  the 
first  serious  attempt  to  obtain  reliable  evidence  of  rapid  changes  in 
the  corona  has  come  to  naught :  it  will  be  many  years  before  another 
eclipse  occurs  with  two  stations  geographically  so  well  placed  for  this 
special  research  as  were  Russia  and  Japan.  Lieut.  SOUTHERLAND  al- 
so looked  after  the  mounting  of  Professor  PICKERING'S  double  coron- 
agraph— two  five-inch  lenses  of  about  three  feet  focus,  the  operation 
of  which  was  entrusted  to  Dr  AMES,  U.S.  Navy  ;  while  Dr  D.  B. 
McCARTEE  attended  to  the  exposures  with  the  4-inch  short-focus 
camera;  and  Mr  C.  R.  GREATHOUSE,  U.  S.  Consul  General  at 
Kanagawa  (Yokohama),  to  the  exposures  of  plate-holders  for  de- 
termining the  actinic  effect  of  the  coronal  light.  I  should  have 
mentioned  previously  the  important  service  of  Mr  PEMBERTON  in 
rendering  the  photoheliograph  less  un wieldly  for  rapid  work  than 
I  had  found  it  formerly.  I  had  long  had  the  idea  that,  by  means 
of  a  system  of  light  rods,  or  of  cords  and  pulleys,  led  from  the 
heliostat  into  the  photographic  house,  the  chief  astronomer  making 
the  exposures  might  have  the  reflecting  mirror  under  his  imme- 
diate and  constant  control,  and  thus  dispense  with  the  customa- 
ry assistant  at  the  heliostat  pier  for  adjusting  the  mirror  in  right 
ascension  and  declination.  All  the  devices  for  this  rather  com- 
plex system  were  practically  executed  by  Mr  PEMBERTON,  and  suf- 
ficed to  give  me  perfect  command  of  the  mirror  from  the  dark  room. 
A  very  simple  device  made  it  possible  to  see  the  bright  reflected 
image  of  the  sun  while  at  my  post  in  the  dark  room,  and  adjust  it 
accurately  on  the  plate,  without  opening  the  exposing-slide. 

The  importance  of  NEWCOMB'S  and  LANGLEY'S  observations  of  the 
outer  corona  in  1878,  and  attempted  by  LOCKYER  in  1886,  had  not 
escaped  me,  and  I  had  an  occulting-disk  mounted  on  a  rod  attached 
firmly  to  the  gable  of  the  photographic  house,  so  that  its  shadow  as 
cast  by  the  eclipsed  sun  would  fall  about  fifty  feet  away,  in  the  area 
enclosed  by  the  upper  castle  wall.  Here  I  stationed  Mrs.  TODD,  as- 


sisted  by  Professor  KIKUCHI,  of  the  Imperial  University,  and  provid- 
ed with  all  the  paraphernalia  for  seeing  and  sketching  in  their  cor- 
rect relations  the  faint,  outlying  streamers  of  the  corona. 

Of  two3J-inch  BECK  telescopes  lent  by  Admiral  YANAGI,  one  was  re- 
served for  the  optical  observation  of  first  and  fourth  contacts,  and  the 
search  for  intra-Mercurial  planets,  while  the  other  was  committed  to 
Dr  HOLLAND  with  instructions  to  sketch  as  far  as  possible  all  the 
details  of  the  corona  adjacent  to  the  solar  poles. 

Mr  NAKAGAWA,  Director  of  the  Naval  Observatory,  with  his  as- 
sistant Mr  SHIRAI,  made  a  thorough  series  of  meteorological  obser- 
vations throughout  the  eclipse  period,  following  the  system  elaborat- 
ed by  VON  BEZOLD,  and  recommended  by  the  German  meteorological 
conference  for  the  observers  in  Russia.  On  the  north-west  corner  of 
the  castle  wall  I  stationed  Mr  K.  A$INO,  a  student  of  astronomy  in 
the  University,  and  interpreter  to  the  Expedition  by  the  kind  direction 
of  President  H.  WATANABE,  of  the  Imperial  University  :  he  was  to 
make  detailed  and^precise  observations  of  the  diffraction  bands,  and 
to  observe,  if  possible,  the  sweep  of  the  lunar  shadow  across  the  ex- 
tensive rice-fields  below  ;  also,  to  observe  the  period  of  visibility  of 
the  corona  after  totality. 

The  purely  eclipse-results  of  the  work  at  Shirakawa  were  disheart- 
ening in  the  extreme.  The  forenoon  gave  us  a  perfect  sky,  with  no 
indication  whatever  of  approaching  cloud  :  all  were  confident  of  en- 
tire success.  But  about  an  hour  before  the  time  of  first  contact,  a 
slender  finger  of  cloud  began  to  rise  from  the  west,  coming  at  first 
directly  above  the  summit  of  Nasu-take,  a  volcano  about  25  miles 
away,  and  which  had  sprung  into  unwonted  activity  during  the  past 
night,  belching  forth  for  hours  enormous  volumes  of  smoke  and 
steam.  The  sun  was  entirely  invisible  during  the  first  half-hour  of 
the  eclipse,  when  a  brief  interval  of  partly  clear  sky  gave  time  for 
adjusting  the  heliostat  and  making  ten  or  twelve  exposures.  The 
sun  being  very  faint,  only  five  of  these  photographs  are  available  for 
measurement,  and  these  were  the  only  pictures  that  could  be  taken 
with  the  photoheliograph.  The  dense  clouds,  leaving  a  large  clear 
area  most  of  the  time  about  the  zenith,  lay  over  the  sun  until  the 
eclipse  was  past,  save  only  a  moment  shortly  after  totality,  when 
there  was  a  partial  clearing,  but  too  brief  and  the  sun  too  faint  to 
allow  of  the  necessary  adjustments  of  the  silvered  mirror,,  which  had 
been  put  into  position  in  the  vain  hope  of  getting  the  whole  or  a  part 
of  the  total  phase.  As  totality  drew  near,  it  suddenly  occurred  to 


me  that  a  good  observation  of  second  contact  might  be  possible  by 
watching  for  the  approach  of  the  moon's  shadow  among  the  clouds  ; 
but  my  attempt  to  do  this  failed,  the  light  appealing  to  me  too  much 
diffused  to  permit  of  anything  better  than  a  rough  approximation  to 
the  time  of  contact.  I  found  subsequently,  however,  in  Mrs.  TODD'S 
notes  on  the  eclipse,  the  statement  that  totality  appeared  to  her  to 
come  on,  not  evenly,  but  as  if  by  jerks  — a  phenomenon  which  may, 
I  think,  have  been  due  to  the  extinction  of  the  sun's  light  from  one 
cloud  after  another  as  the  lunar  shadow  advanced  over  the  north- 
western sky. 

The  weather-maps  for  the  19th  August,  which  came  to  our  station 
from  Tokio  the  day  after  the  eclipse,  gave  us  some  idea  of  the  odds 
we  had  been  laboring  against :  the  sheet  for  2  p.  M.  showed  clouds 
at  all  stations  of  the  Meteorological  Service  except  one,  and  that  far 
removed  from  the  belt  of  totality.  In  general,  the  whole  of  the  main 
island  was  obscured  on  the  eventful  afternoon  ;  and  a  view  of  the 
eclipse  was  permitted  only  to  those  so  fortunate  as  to  be  located  in 
the  line  of  the  small  apertures,  here  and  there,  through  the  general 
cloud  area.  These  were  numerous  enough  to  enable  voluntary  ob- 
servers, scattered  all  over  the  central  portion  of  the  belt  of  totality, 
and  for  whom  I  had  prepared  instructions,  to  obtain  a  goodly  num- 
ber of  drawings  of  the  corona.  These  instructions  had  been  trans- 
lated into  Japanese,  and  printed  and  distributed  through  the  co-op- 
eration of  the  Department  of  Education,  and  the  Bureau  of  Topo- 
graphy of  the  Department  of  the  Interior.  Altogether  there  are 
something  like  a  hundred  such  drawings,  but  their  value  is  uncertain. 
Among  the  latter  sketches  of  the  corona  was  one  made  in  west- 
ern Japan  by  Mr  S.  ISAWA,  of  the  Department  of  Education,  and 
which  has  already  been  reproduced  in  Nature,  for  the  17th  No- 
vember last.  I  prepared  also  instructions  for  observers  of  simple 
duration  of  totality,  hoping  to  obtain  additional  data  for  the  position 
and  direction  of  motion  of  the  moon's  shadow.  These  were  amply 
distributed  under  like  auspices  to  a  large,  number  of  observers  just 
inside  the  limits  of  the  shadow-path. 

Other  expeditions  in  Japan  fared  ill  also — some  of  them  worse 
than  my  own.  That  sent  out  by  the  University  in  charge  of  Profes- 
sor TERAO,  and  located  a  few  miles  south  of  Shirakawa,  at  Knroiso, 
experienced  not  only  heavy  clouds  but  much  rain  during  the  eclipse, 
and  no  observations- could  be  made.  At  Sanjo,  on  the  central  line 
and  south-east  of  Niigata,  Professor  ARAI,  Director  of  the  Imperial 

2 


10 

Meteorological  Central  Observatory,  was  able  to  make  successful  ex- 
posures for  the  corona  with  a  small  telescope  ;  his  negatives  had  not 
yet  reached  Yokohama  on  my  departure,  and  had  not  been  develop- 
ed.* It  was  reported  clear  during  the  whole  of  the  eclipse  at  Choshi, 
a  point  on  the  eastern  coast  near  the  southern  limit  of  total  obscura- 
tion ;  but  there  were  no  observers  or  instruments  there  for  scientific 
work.  It  was  reported  cloudy  throughout  the  whole  eclipse  at  Nii- 
gata ;  while  a  party  of  observers  who  had  ambitiously  climbed  to  the 
top  of  Nantai-san,  brought  down  a  record  of  nothing  but  clouds  and 
fog.  On  the  whole,  Japan  appears  to  have  been  an  uncanny  spot  to 
lead  an  eclipse-track  across.  This  condition  of  things  was  apparent- 
ly suspected  by  Mr  MORIOKA,  the  President  of  the  Nippon  Yusen 
Kaisha  (Japan  Steamship  Company,)  who  organized  a  large  excur- 
sion party  which  sailed  in  the  ;  Nagoya-ruaru  '  for  a  point  in  the  belt 
of  totality  off  the  east  coast  of  Japan  ;  but  they  were  debarred  from  a 
view  of  all  except  the  first  part  of  the  eclipse,  and  missed  seeing  to- 
tality completely,  although  possessed  of  the  unique  advantage  of  an 
observing-station  variable  in  position  at  will. 

Happily,  however,  there  is  much  to  retrieve  the  sorry  fortune  of 
the  Expedition  on  the  19th  August.  As  appears  in  the  pages  follow- 
ing, Dr  HOLLAND  was  actively  engaged  in  botanical  and  entomological 
research  in  fruitful  fields,  and  has  a  good  harvest  to  report  upon.  He 
has  also  valuable  notes  upon  his  ascent  of  Nantai-san,  Asama-yama 
and  Nasu-take,  which  will  be  embodied  in  the  report  on  the  ascent  of 
Fuji-sail.  Finally,  the  Expedition  to  the  summit  of  this  latter  moun- 
tain, which  I  had  the  pleasure  to  carry  out  under  the  auspices  of  the 
BOYDEN  Fund  of  the  Harvard  College  Observatory,  and  on  which  I 
had  the  valued  co-operation  of  Dr  KNIPPING,  resulted  among  other 
things  in  the  determination  of  its  rare  fitness  as  a  site  for  astronomical 
observation.  Preliminary  to  its  occupation  as  such,  however,  it  is 
most  desirable,  in  the  interests  of  both  meteorology  and  astronomy, 
that  a  meteorological  station  should  be  maintained  on  the  summit 
throughout  the  entire  year  if  practicable.  There  is  good  reason 
for  the  hope  that  this  may  now  be  done,  in  connection  with  the  recent 
extension  of  the  field  of  operations  of  the  Imperial  Central  Observa- 
tory, already  well  progressed. 

*Prints  from  three  of  these  negatives  just  received  show  abundant  detail  of  the  inner 
corona.— 1).  P.  T.  18th  January,  1888. 


Preliminary  Report  of  Dr  W.  J.  Holland, 

• 
NATURALIST   OF    THE    EXPEDITION. 


PROF.  DAVID  P.  TODD, 

In  charge  American  Eclipse  Expedition  to  Japan, 
DEAR    SIR  : — 

In  pursuance  of  your  request,  I  submit  as  early  as  possible  a  pre- 
liminary report  upon  the  results  of  my  labors  as  the  naturalist  of  the 
Expedition. 

It  became  evident  to  me  shortly  after  our  arrival  in  Japan  that  it 
would  be  advisable  to  restrict  my  efforts  in  the  direction  of  securing 
specimens  of  natural  history  to  the  domains  of  botany  and  entomolo- 
gy. I  was  led  to  this  conclusion  by  the  fact  that  the  authorities  re- 
fused to  allow  me  permission  to  use  a  gun  outside  of  treaty  limits, 
thus  practically  prohibiting  all  attempts  to  collect  the  birds  and  ani- 
mals of  those  localities  in  the  interior  which  I  subsequently  visited  ; 
and  also  by  the  fact  that  the  vertebrate  fauna  of  Japan  has  been  al- 
ready quite  thoroughly  explored  by  those  who  have  had  more  abund- 
ant opportunity  to  collect  specimens  and  study  the  habits  of  the  living 
creatures  than  I  could  hope  to  have  in  the  brief  stay  which  we  con- 
templated. 

Acting  upon  this  conviction,  I  secured,  with  the  assistance  of  Mr 
E.  H.  R.  MANLEY,  and  Mr  H.  PRYER  suitable  native  assistance, 
and  addressed  myself  with  diligence  to  the  task  of  collecting  the 
plants  and  insects  of  those  regions  which  I  visited.  The  work  of  the 
botanist  went  on  almost  daily — the  work  of  the  entomologist  by  day 
and  by  night.  The  gross  result  is  a  collection  of  fully  4,000  botani- 
cal specimens,  representing  nearly  800  species,  and  fully  6,000  ento- 
mological specimens  representing  about  1,200  species,  mainly  Lepi- 
doptera  and  Coleoptera.  In  addition  to  these  collections  made  under 
my  own  direct  supervision,  I  obtained  by  purchase  and  exchange  a 
number  of  desirable  specimens  from  resident  collectors.  My  most 


12 

notable  acquisition  in  this  way  is  the  entire  collection  of  the  Pyralidae 
of  Japan  made  by  Mr  H.  PUYER,  representing  the  labors  of  nearly 
seventeen  years,  and  containing  nearly  4,000  specimens  of  more  than 
375  species,  the  larger  part  of  them  as  yet  undetermined  and  possibly 
new  to  science.  I  have  been  unable  as  yet  to  attempt  even  a  rude 
classification  of  the  insects  of  other  orders  which  I  have  brought 
home  with  me,  but  have  succeeded  in  roughly  analyzing  the  collec- 
tions of  Lepidoptera.  These  are  distributed  among  the  following 
groups : — 

(1)  Rhopalocera  (butterflies  proper)  127  Species. 

(2)  Uraniidse  2         " 

(3)  Sphingidae  20 

(4)  ^Egeriadse  7         " 

(5)  Thyridae  1          " 

(6)  Zygaenidae  6         4k 

(7)  Bombycidae  121)         " 

(8)  Noctuae  .  145 

(9)  Geometridae  135 

(10)  Pyralidae  377 

(11)  Tortricidse  60 

(12)  Tineidae  17 


Total  of  Species  1017 

The  Coleoptera  represent  fully  375  species.  The  Hemiptera,  Or- 
thoptera,  Neuroptera  and  Hymenoptera  amount  to  fully  75  species 
in  addition.  The  grand  aggregate  of  species  contained  in  these  col- 
lections is  fully  1,450,  and  the  total  number  of  specimens  over  10,- 
000.  There  are  abundant  duplicates  of  many  of  the  commoner  spe- 
cies, but  there  are  fully  100  species  which  are  represented  by  only 
one  specimen. 

The  collections  I  bring  with  me  were  made  in  the  following  locali- 
ties : 

(1)  Yokohama  and  vicin it}7. 

(2)  Tokio  and  vicinity. 

(3)  Nikko  and  the  slopes  of  Nantai-san. 

(4)  Usui-toge,  Oiwake,  and  the  slopes  of  Asama-yaimi. 

(5)  Slopes  of  Nasu-take. 

(6)  Shirakawa  and  vicinity. 

(7)  Hakone  Mountains  and  the  slopes  of  Fuji-san. 

(8)  Vicinity  of  Kobe',  Osaka,  Nam  :iiul  Kioto. 

(9)  Nagasaki  and  vicinity. 


13 

The  collection  of  the  Pyralidse  purchased  from  Mr  FRYER  covers 
the  entire  group  of  the*  Japanese  Islands,  including  the  Loo-Choo  and 
Bouiu  Islands.  It  is  arranged  in  accordance  with  the  4k  Check-list  of 
the  Japanese  Lepidoptera  "  published  a  few  years  ago  b\'  Mr  FRYER 
in  the  "  Transactions  of  the  Asiatic  Society  of  Japan,"  and  contains 
typical  specimen!?  of  many  of  the  forms  described  in  recent  years  by 
Mr  A.  Gk  BUTLEK  of  the  British  Museum. 

-In  this  connection,  permit  me  to  suggest  the  desirability  of  promptly 
utilizing  this  precious  material  in  the  preparation  and  publication  of 
a  work  upon  the  Lepidoptera  of  Japan.  I  believe  that  I  might  count 
with  certainty  upon  the  assistance  of  Mr  FRYER  in  the  preparation 
of  a  monograph  of  the  Pyralidse,  if  not  of  the  other  groups.  Such  a 
work  has  never  been  attempted  hitherto.  The  close  -  relationship 
which  manifestly  subsists  between  the  insect  fauna  of  the  East- 
ern United  States  and  of  Japan  would  lend  great  scientific  interest 
to  such  a  paper,  and  its  completion  under  American  auspices  might 
in  a  measure  atone  for  the  disappointment  we  have  mutually  felt  on 
account  of  the  somewhat  meagre  results,  which,  through  no  fault  of 
yours,  followed  the  astronomical  labors  of  the  Expedition  during  the 
eclipse. 

As  to  my  botanical  collections,  I  am  not  prepared  to  .speak  defi- 
nitely as  yet ;  but  in  view  of  the  very  thorough  manner  in  which  the 
flora  of  Japan  has  been  studied  in  recent  years,  I  regard  it  as  quite 
unlikely  that  I  have  brought  with  me  any  species  new  to  science  and 
hitherto  undescribed.  The  wonderful  affinity  between  the  flora  of 
the  United  States  and  of  Japan  is  strikingly  brought  forth  in  these 
collections,  which  were  mainly  made  upon  the  mountain  slopes  and 
more  elevated  regions  of  the  country. 

My  attention  having  been  attracted  to  the  manner  in  which  fruit- 
trees,  and  especially  peach-trees,  in  Japan  are  subject  to  the  depreda- 
tions of  insect  pests,  I  took  occasion  just  before  leaving  the  country 
to  lay  before  the  Hon.  R.  B.  HUBBARD,  our  Minister  Plenipoten- 
tiary, a  brief  paper  in  which  I  pointed  out  the  importance  of  having 
the  attention  of  the  Japanese  authorities  called  to  the  enormous  loss 
to  which  the  agricultural  community  of  the  Empire  must  annually  be 
subjected  from  this  source,  as  well  as  to  the  sanitary  evils  which  fol- 
low from  the  universal  custom  of  gathering  and  marketing  fruit  in  an 
unripe  and  unwholesome  condition.  It  is  alleged  that  this  custom  is 
due  to  the  fact  that  fruit,  if  allowed  to  mature,  is  always  destroyed 
by  insects.  I  took  occasion  to  point  out  certain  simple  precautions 


14 

against  insect  ravages,  and  to  urge  the  passage  of  laws  against  the 
destruction  of  insectivorous  birds.  I  farther  urged  the  expediency 
of  restricting,  or  of  prohibiting,  the  importation  of  growing  plants 
from  Japan,  as  there  is  reason  to  fear  that  various  species  of  insects 
hostile  to  our  fruit-crops  may  thus  be  introduced  into  the  United 
States.  The  receipt  of  this  paper  was  courteously  acknowledged  by 
Mr  HUBBARD,  and  the  reception  of  a  copy  of  it  was  later  acknowl- 
edged by  the  Japanese  Prime  Minister,  Count  ITO,  who  stated  that  it 
had  been  transmitted  to  the  Department  of  Agriculture  for  due  con- 
sideration. 

While  at  Nikko  I  succeeded  in  making  a  few  highly  interesting  ob- 
servations upon  the  habits  of  a  species  of  frog  which  deposits  its 
eggs  at  the  ends  of  willow  branches  overhanging  pools  of  stagnant 
water,  enclosing  them  in  a  viscid  secretion,  in  which  they  are  hatch- 
ed, and  in  which  the  tadpoles  undergo  their  primary  transformations. 
I  am  aware  that  the  Chiromantis  Guineensis  of  West  Africa  deposits 
its  eggs  in  albuminous  masses  among  the  leaves  of  trees  overhanging 
watercourses.  During  the  dry  season  these  masses  are  said  to  be- 
come quite  hard,  but  upon  the  advent  of  rains,  it  is  reported  that 
they  soften  and  fall  into  the  water,  where  the  tadpoles  are  then  hatch- 
ed forth  and  undergo  their  transformations.  At  Nikko  the  masses 
of  frothy,  viscid  matter,  which  I  found  suspended  upon  the  branches, 
were  discovered  upon  opening  to  be  filled,  not  with  eggs,  but  with 
exceedingly  vigorous  and  lively  tadpoles,  from  A  to  J  of  an  inch  in 
length.  My  knowledge  of  the  subject  is  not  such  as  to  justify  the 
statement  that  this  is  a  phenomenon  hitherto  unobserved ;  but  in  the 
course  of  extensive  reading  upon  the  subject,  I  have  never  as  yet  fall- 
en in  with  an  account  of  arboreal  tadpoles  such  as  those  I  have 
brought  home  with  me. 

In  addition  to  my  botanical  and  zoological  labors,  I  had  the  pleas- 
ure of  ascending  four  of  the  volcanoes  of  Japan,  two  of  them,  Nan- 
tai-san  and  Fuji-san  extinct,  two  of  them,  Asama-yama  and  Nasu- 
take  active.  The  latter  volcano  I  believe  I  have  the  honor  of  briii"1. 
with  one  possible  exception,  the  first  foreigner  to  have  scaled.  I 
was  assured  by  a  number  of  the  people  residing  at  Yumoto,*  from 
which  the  ascent  is  made,  that  I  was  the  first  foreigner  who  had  ever 
visited  the  mountain  ;  but  upon  my  return  to  Tokio,  I  was  informed 
by  our  mutual  friend  Dr  KNIPPING  that  ik  somebody  else  h:ul  made 
the  ascent  a  couple  of  years  ago."  There  is  at  least  a  tradition  to  this 

*Not  to  be  confounded  with  Yumoto  near  Chiu-sen-jk 


15 

effect  preserved  at  Tokio,  and  in  deference  to  it,  I  waive  the  claim  to 
be  the  first  explorer  of  this  highly  interesting  peak. 

As  you  will  recall,  my  ascent  of  Nantai-san  was  made  at  your  re- 
quest, in  order  to  ascertain  its  fitness  as  a  location  for  the  Eclipse 
Expedition.  I  was  accompanied  by  our  friend,  Dr  W.  N.  WHITNEY, 
the  interpreter  of  the  American  Legation,  whose  services  had  been 
kindly  placed  for  the  time  being  at  the  disposal  of  the  Expedition 
by  the  Hon.  R.  B.  HUBBARD.  We  left  Nikko  the  morning  of  the  18th 
July;  passed  the  night  at  Chiu-sen-ji,  and  accomplished  the  as- 
cent of  the  mountain  upon  the  morning  following,  starting  at  2  A.  M. 
and  reaching  the  summit  at  7  A.  M.  It  is  not  my  intention  here  to 
give  a  detailed  account  of  my  observations  ;  but  it  suffices  to  say  that, 
owing  to  the  difficulty  of  reaching  the  summit,  the  great  risks  which 
would  in  consequence  have  attended  the  transportation  of  delicate  sci- 
entific apparatus  to  the  spot,  and  the  total  absence  of  all  supplies  of 
water  upon  the  mountain,  my  report  to  you  was  adverse  to  the  loca- 
tion of  even  a  part  of  our  Expedition  there.  Results  proved  the  es- 
sential wisdom  of  this  decision,  as  the  hopeful  spirits  who  climbed 
the  mountain  upon  the  day  of  the  eclipse  found  themselves  even  less 
favorably  located  than  we  were  at  Shirakawa,  and  were  forced  to 
content  themselves  with  a  bath  in  a  black  bank  of  fog. 

I  made  the  ascent  of  Asama-yama  upon  the  1st  of  August,  start- 
ing from  Oiwake  at  7  A.  M.  and  reaching  the  summit  at  12  :  30  p.  M. 
I  was  accompanied  by  my  native  assistant,  TORA-SAN,  and  Mr  H. 
SATOMI,  an  exceedingly  intelligent  young  Japanese  gentleman  who  is 
pursuing  his  studies  at  Tokio,  and  who,  speaking  German  fluently, 
enabled  me  to  acquire  much  information  that  otherwise  would  have 
been  lost  to  me.  In  addition  we  were  accompanied  by  several  of  the 
friends  of  Mr  SATOMI,  resident  in  Oiwake,  and  a  number  of  coolies, 
who  acted  as  guides  and  porters.  We  were  favored  with  a  cloudless 
sky  during  the  afternoon,  and  remained  upon  the  summit  until  4  p. 
M.  The  time  was  spent  in  an  examination  of  the  crater,  and  in 
sketching  its  salient  features.  The  drawing  of  the  crater  I  have 
brought  with  me  is,  I  have  reason  to  believe,  one-  of  the  first  which 
has  been  attempted  by  a  foreigner,  and  I  know  of  none  from  the 
hands  of  any  Japanese  artist,  though  I  made  inquiry  in  the  hope  of 
securing  such  a  drawing  did  it  exist. 

The  excursion  from  Shirakawa  to  the  summit  of  Nasu-take  and 
return  occupied  four  days,  from  the  morning  of  the  12th  of  August 
to  the  evening  of  the  15th.  The  ascent  of  the  cone  took  place  upon 


16 

the  13th  of  August.  The  volcano  is  active,  and  from  numerous  vents 
near  the  summit  vast  bodies  of  steam  and  sulphur  smoke  are  being 
discharged.  An  eruption  of  considerable  magnitude  occurred  in 
1880;  and  upon  the  north-western  side  are  impressive  evidences  of 
the  havoc  and  devastation  occasioned  by  the  event.  I  spent  fully 
six  hours  about  the  cone,  and  brought  away  witli  me  a  series  of  six 
sketches  conveying  a  general  idea  of  the  configuration  of  the  crater 
and  the  solfataras,  of  which  there  are  several  upon  the  mountain. 

Of  the  ascent  of  Fuji-san,  made  in  your  company,  it  is  not    neces- 
sary to  say  anything  in  this  report. 

In  conclusion,  I  desire  to  express  to  you  my  sincere  appreciation  of 
your  kind  invitation  to  accompany  the  Expedition  as  its  naturalist. 
I  was  thereby  furnished  with  a  forcible  pretext  for  temporarily  for- 
saking professional  cares  and  duties,  and  given  an  opportunity  of 
studying  much  with  which  I  had  become  in  a  measure  familiar 
through  reading,  but  which,  after  the  manner  of  those  who  rely  only 
upon  books,  I  did  not  thoroughly  comprehend.  While  thanking  you 
for  the  kindness  experienced  at  your  hands,  I  cannot  fail  also  to  ex- 
press my  sense  of  deep  obligation  to  the  host  of  friends  whom  we 
met  in  Japan,  both  natives  and  resident  foreigners,  who  did  every- 
thing in  their  power  to  make  our  stay  pleasant,  profitable  and  ia-' 
B  tractive. 

I  have  the  honor  to  be,  dear  sir. 

Yours,  most  respectfully, 

W.   J.  HOLLAND. 

Pittsburgh,  Penn.,  15th  December,  1887. 


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